ANTLRWorks

ANTLRWorks is an integrated development environment for working with ANTLR grammars. It provides a graphical interface to edit grammar rules, generate recognizers, and test input against grammars produced by the ANTLR parser generator. The project aims to streamline grammar development by integrating editing, debugging, and visualization tools in a single environment.

Core features include syntax highlighting and auto-completion for grammar files, integrated execution of the ANTLR tool to produce source code in target languages, a test rig for running sample inputs and comparing parse trees, and a visualizer that shows parse trees and token streams. It also includes error highlighting, outlining of grammar rules, and navigation aids to jump between rule definitions.

ANTLRWorks is implemented in Java and runs on platforms supported by the Java Virtual Machine, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. It originally leveraged the NetBeans Platform for its user interface, and was designed to support grammar development for ANTLR v3, with subsequent updates providing compatibility with newer ANTLR versions such as ANTLR v4.

Development of ANTLRWorks was led by Terence Parr and contributors, as part of the ANTLR ecosystem to facilitate learning, teaching, and production use of ANTLR grammars. While not as actively developed as core ANTLR itself in later years, ANTLRWorks remains referenced as an early, user-friendly IDE for grammar authors and is often cited in historical overviews of ANTLR tooling.